London: the unlockening/relockening
- Thread starter teuchter
- Start date
Cloo
Banana for scale
When I went into the office briefly a few weeks back, Victoria Street was pretty busy. And there were long queues for the checkout in Zara
That was a Friday, so I'd imagine midweek would be significantly busier, if not at normal levels.
ska invita
back on the other side
My regular commute train reduced to one an hour so forced on the tube ...meanwhile on the tube
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
It was a bit of a shock tbf , I'm in that square a lot in normal times , during the pandemic I've been there maybe a couple of times a month, it was generally empty .Sadface.That's sad face not so much as in "oh god, I worry what this will do to covid numbers", but sad face as in "I have so been enjoying empty London and don't want it to go back to normal"
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Yeh I quite fancy another lockdown, don't want to go back to normal either. Perhaps an unpopular view. But there you go.Sadface.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I went up into town today and visited the Photographers' Gallery and everything was... actually really quite high population for a random Tuesday. A lot of tourists though I'm not sure where they were from.
I'd had the intention of going to a food place to test my resolve in terms of eating indoors but they're all small in that area and they were all pretty full and I'd feel like a dick if I got the 'rona from eating at Pret. That seems like a really poor cost/benefit deal.
Instead I got some sushi and ate it in the gardens near Embankment, but I had to pretty much hit a duck in the face with my chopsticks to stop it stealing some, which is new.
I'd had the intention of going to a food place to test my resolve in terms of eating indoors but they're all small in that area and they were all pretty full and I'd feel like a dick if I got the 'rona from eating at Pret. That seems like a really poor cost/benefit deal.
Instead I got some sushi and ate it in the gardens near Embankment, but I had to pretty much hit a duck in the face with my chopsticks to stop it stealing some, which is new.
I don’t know if this is the thread for this, but talking about trains: SouthWestern are “consulting” on halving their number of trains for many routes (including the one through Epsom and Dorking) from 2022. To put it in context, that means they are proposing to run a single train an hour to Dorking, which is a pretty major terminus.
Their justification for doing this is that during lockdown, they’ve actually, for the first time, managed to hit their arrival-on-time performance targets as a result of only running half as many trains. So by being shit on the most important metric, they can be less shit on a lesser metric. This they are then selling as a sign of them being a well-run company.
Their justification for doing this is that during lockdown, they’ve actually, for the first time, managed to hit their arrival-on-time performance targets as a result of only running half as many trains. So by being shit on the most important metric, they can be less shit on a lesser metric. This they are then selling as a sign of them being a well-run company.
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Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
The whole "nobody ever needs trains again now we work from home" discussions that have taken place thanks to Covid are especially shit. Sad to see it's escaped from anti-HS2 protesters to management consultants
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I got on a bus. Nobody was wearing a mask. Somebody sneezed. I got off.
Nobody! Was it busy? I wonder if it was fairly empty and people thought it doesn’t matter if they’re not many people. That’s awful, it’s still a legal requirement on buses isn’t it? I feel for the bus driver, I bet they’ve given up attempting to remind people.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I think it's a condition of use rather than a legal requirement. If you look at TfL's Twitter, people complaining about lack of enforcement is a running theme.
It wasn't full as it was the middle of the day, but full enough that you're near people. And there were a few wearing masks, it's true.
I generally get around on two wheels but can't now as I've got a broken wrist. I was hoping I'd be able to go swimming regularly by bus soon but it was really disheartening
I don't want covid on top of everything else.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Bus drivers I think don't have to because they are sealed off from the public now.
Had to the train into the city today for work reasons. I thought I'd be smart and leave late morning to avoid the commuter services. I completly forgot its school summer holidays. The trains were rammed with hordes of unmasked plague rats.
Oh well. I've had a good run and you have to die of something sooner or later.
Oh well. I've had a good run and you have to die of something sooner or later.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I've caught the bus a few more times now and mask wearing is consistently between 40-60% in this neck of the burbs.
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
I don't know if it was just a "today" thing, but in Covent Garden the entire planet either seemed to be buying clothes or queueing up for theatre tickets. There was a queue at least a hundred people long outside either the Adelphi or the Vaudeville and at least fifty outside the Lyceum.
Mask wearing, even amongst the kids, remains pretty high on public transport - 85% plus on the trains and at least 95% on the tube (not been on a bus for yonks). The rush hour vicky line today was barely any different from the beforetimes crowd-wise, with the exception of a bunch of people not knowing backpack, bag, barrier or bescalator etiquette (they can't all have been tourists!).
Mask wearing, even amongst the kids, remains pretty high on public transport - 85% plus on the trains and at least 95% on the tube (not been on a bus for yonks). The rush hour vicky line today was barely any different from the beforetimes crowd-wise, with the exception of a bunch of people not knowing backpack, bag, barrier or bescalator etiquette (they can't all have been tourists!).
stdP
One Swiss dinosaur in Polly Gosling's anorak hood
Posting after myself which is bad form, but hey.
A bunch of my colleagues (including two new guys whom we've only seen in person a couple of times) all happened to be in the offices yesterday for various reason and so we ended up going out for impromptu drinks in Fitzrovia - everyone's been jabbed, it was a nice evening and, frankly, we'd had a hard day (problems with the remote working setup ironically enough) and fancied an unwind. Frankly it was like the pandemic hadn't even happened - we were all stood out in the street (but that's pretty normal for the area anyway) along with about a hundred or so other people at the peak, and about another thirty or so inside, and the alcohol and conversation flowed freely. The only real change was some of the staff wearing masks and lots of hand sanitiser sloshing around for wiping things down (thankfully no plastic cups). Groups of people on the street would try and remain apart from one another but, presumably due to licensing restrictions, they had a member of staff getting everyone to bunch up next to the pub instead of remaining spread out. All of the other pubs we passed by seemed to have the exact same sort of arrangement.
The pub wasn't as busy as it had been previously of course (usually in Fitzrovia in august you can't heave a brick without spilling Tarquin's pint), but going up to the bar and frantically trying to remember everyone's drinks to get a round in is one of life's simple pleasures that I'm happy to return to.
A bunch of my colleagues (including two new guys whom we've only seen in person a couple of times) all happened to be in the offices yesterday for various reason and so we ended up going out for impromptu drinks in Fitzrovia - everyone's been jabbed, it was a nice evening and, frankly, we'd had a hard day (problems with the remote working setup ironically enough) and fancied an unwind. Frankly it was like the pandemic hadn't even happened - we were all stood out in the street (but that's pretty normal for the area anyway) along with about a hundred or so other people at the peak, and about another thirty or so inside, and the alcohol and conversation flowed freely. The only real change was some of the staff wearing masks and lots of hand sanitiser sloshing around for wiping things down (thankfully no plastic cups). Groups of people on the street would try and remain apart from one another but, presumably due to licensing restrictions, they had a member of staff getting everyone to bunch up next to the pub instead of remaining spread out. All of the other pubs we passed by seemed to have the exact same sort of arrangement.
The pub wasn't as busy as it had been previously of course (usually in Fitzrovia in august you can't heave a brick without spilling Tarquin's pint), but going up to the bar and frantically trying to remember everyone's drinks to get a round in is one of life's simple pleasures that I'm happy to return to.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I would be very pushed to suggest something that's different in London now vs before the pandemic. The only part that feels at all different is the tube, and even that's going downhill - nothing would ever happen to you if you didn't wear a mask, it was all social inertia, and now that's disappearing fast.
spitfire
Walty McWaltface
It’s always been that way whenever I’ve been there. Pandemic or no. Coal drops yard is always empty. Loads of expensive tat that no one wants.
Apart from the Japanese knife shop. That’s cool.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
It has people on weekends when the sun is out. Not all that many people mind.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
Coal Drop Yard is just a fake area to pretend that the overpriced-even-for-London property there has a local ecosystem, and maybe to give the Google staff somewhere to go except I doubt they ever do because Google provides all their needs. It's as real as the shops in Canary Wharf.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
My ceramics studio tends to do events in Coal Drops Yard but that just proves it's a super gentrified location.
Does the odd event market I'd like to visit if I was in the area to.
Does the odd event market I'd like to visit if I was in the area to.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
I've been to a couple of art events there. Perfectly reasonable place to have one: easy to get to and they want real people to come do stuff there to try to prove the venue is real.
